Abstract
Various mushrooms were screened for use in the production of miso from quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) seeds. Forty mushrooms were cultured in the preparation of quinoa koji on the solid-state medium composed by quinoa and water. The protease activities of the quinoa kojis were assayed, and 14 mushrooms were shown to exhibit high protease activity. Among the 14 strains, 5 edible mushrooms showed salt-tolerance in the presence of 10 % NaCl, and these were used to produce miso from quinoa. The free amino acids content and antioxidant activity of the quinoa miso with mushroom fermentation were higher than that of the quinoa miso without mushroom fermentation and were similar to commercially produced miso.
